Keshia Campbell, hired as athletic director in July, resigns from HU

Keshia Campbell's tenure as Hampton University's first female athletic director lasted less than a year.

Campbell, hired on July 20, has left the school.

"In a nutshell, I did resign," Campbell told The Daily Press on Wednesday. She declined further comment.

HU issued a release late Wednesday afternoon that said Campbell "stepped down" for "personal reasons." The release said Rodney Smith, HU's vice president for administrative services, will act as athletic director "while the university conducts a national search."

"Ms. Campbell did a very good job for us and I hate to see her go," HU president William Harvey said in the release. "All of us wish her well in any future endeavor."

Campbell, a former Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference basketball player and coach of the year at South Carolina State, worked in athletic administration at HU from 2004-2006 before leaving to join the NCAA, where she worked as assistant and associate director of championships.

In 2009, Campbell left the NCAA to become the director for business affairs and special projects at the University of Texas-Dallas. She held that position when she was hired by HU to replace Lonza Hardy Jr., who resigned after five years as the Pirates' athletic director on July 7 to take the same post at Arkansas-Pine Bluff.

"I am looking forward to rejoining the university," Campbell told The Daily Press after taking the HU job. "I definitely enjoyed what I did at Hampton, working with all of our athletic programs."

Campbell was HU's associate athletic director for administration when she first left the school in 2006.

That same year, she was inducted into the S.C. State University Athletic Hall of Fame. Campbell, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference player of the year as a senior in 1991, coached her alma mater for seven years, earning MEAC coach of the year honors in 2001.

In a sit-down interview with The Daily Press in December, Campbell said her familiarity with the culture of HU was an advantage in her return as AD.

"In dealing with the people, a lot of the same faces are here, and a lot of the players are still in key positions and key roles," she said.

Campbell, a native of Bennettsville, S.C. and the 1987 valedictorian of Blenheim High, said people occasionally commented on her being HU's first female AD, but she didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the historic significance of her job.

"It makes me feel really good, but at the same time, it's not been something that I really focused on," she said.

In that interview, Campbell spoke in her HU office, surrounded by trophies and memorabilia but few personal possessions.

"If I were to leave here today, I would grab my purse and that Germ-X (hand sanitizer)," she said. "That's it. I came in and literally just started working and haven't let up at all."